Letters

Experience is what counts. Everything else is just talk.

In the 1st District congressional election this November, incumbent Lee Zeldin will be a tough opponent, and beyond that, Congress is a tough neighborhood. This is no place for amateurs.

There are three candidates in the Democratic primary contest to pick a challenger for the 1st District seat this year. Two of them are amateurs, with zero experience. Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming is the only one who has been in the arena, winning elections, passing laws and doing the people’s work for years.

One of Bridget Fleming’s primary opponents has never run for office nor served in any kind of government position. The other has never held public office either, but has run in one general election, the 2018 congressional contest, where he lost to the same Lee Zeldin, despite that being a great year for Democrats generally. He wants to do it again.

Bridget Fleming has a long and admirable record of public service, as county legislator, Southampton Town councilwoman and assistant district attorney. She has prosecuted fraud in public programs, fostered youth job training, protected working farms, and focused at the county level on environmental preservation, responsible development, and the public health concerns so vital right now.

Along the way, Bridget has won election after election. Hard work, paying dues — this is the foundation on which a successful run for Congress is based, not some inchoate wish to be turned into a congressman by a kind of money magic.

Experience is what counts now. The United States is in a crisis of leadership unlike any in our history. We must elect honest and courageous leaders at every level of government. It will take hard-won experience to get elected, and hard-won experience after that to do what the American people so badly need. Everything else is just talk.

I am the treasurer of the Southampton Town Democratic Committee, but I write here solely as an individual and not for the committee. I’m voting for Bridget Fleming for Congress in the June 23 Democratic primary. Please join me.

George Lynch

Quiogue